Scavenger Life Episode 464: In the wake of the pandemic- Facebook Shops

Yes, SixBit uploads each of our listings into the Shopify store. SB coordinates and synchs Ebay, Etsy and Shopify all from the one central location.

We use SB to create just one listing with all the item specifics, description and handles the complete inventory of all items. Create the one listing and when ready to upload-list, there are 3 tabs titled Ebay, Etsy, Shopify. We list all of our items on all 3, so we click those 3 tabs and there they go. Boom, all 3 platforms are populated with the same item.

Now here is the great thing. SB has what they call “Allocation Plans”. So, when an item sells on any of the 3 platforms, SixBit automatically deletes the listing [sale] from the other two platforms.

SB also eliminates the creation of duplicates like Ryanne was talking about. SB controls your inventory and all the financials associated with all 3 platforms.

If you happen to have 3 identical items like 3 plates, you input 3 pcs. into the inventory tab, then input 3 items “available for Sale”. Then when 1 item is sold, SB will reduce the available number on the other 2 platforms down to 2. Then down to one if another one sells, then when the final one sells, the inventory is reduced to zero and all 3 platforms gets deleted.

BTW, WonderLister which we used for 3 years prior to switching to SixBit also handled auto synching with Shopify, but WL was having problems with its Etsy module. That is the reason, after 3 years we finally switched to SixBit.

Just FWI…we still have not gone live with our Shopify Store yet as far as taking actual Sales as of yet, because we have been making a fairly major shift from what we have been selling for many years. Due to Susan’s cancer I have had to redesign things so that I will be able to do all the stores with only myself and our now one helper.

But back to my point, it will be great if SixBit will now be able to handle the addition of Facebook Shops and Instagram, especially since it sounds like FB is going to forward Sales back to Shopify, the SixBit may be able to just stay as it is and it will see the Sale because it will be going through Shopify.

So still 3 tabs but covering 5 platforms.

I composed a message to SB Tech Support and have asked all of these questions plus more and will see what the team has to say about the FB announcement, did SixBit know ahead of time this was coming and if they had solutions on the drawing board for some time now and they are ready to have a go at it.

The team usually gets back to me within 24 hrs. give or take so will see.

especially interested if the SB inventory, photos, descriptions and item specifics will just export over to FB just like it does for Etsy.

We will see.

Mike Collins at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
MDC Concepts, Inc.

My eBay Sales (No Store) Week May 17 – May 23, 2020

Total Items For Sale (No Store): 45
Items Sold: 4
Gross Sales: $155
Cost of Items Sold: $0
Highest Price Sold: $55 (Vintage Nikon Zoom Lens)
Average Price Sold: $38.75
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number Of Items Listed This Week: 7

May 17-23, 2020
Total Items In Store: 4565
Items Sold: 65
Gross Sales (including shipping): 1600.13
Cost of Items Sold: 65.33
Highest Price Sold: 100.89 (1995 Atlanta Braves World Series Champion Stein)
Average Price Sold: 24.61
Returns: 0
Sourcing Cost: 0

That’s interesting about the facebook shop idea. I am a little conflicted because like you, I really don’t like that website. I only keep my account because a) I have friends who insist on using it and it’s the only way to keep up with their family life. And b) I use it to sell ads for my other business.

On the other hand, it’s a huge platform and you might as well go to where the traffic is. I do wonder whether our name and location would be displayed on shops or whether we could pick a username. That’s the main reason I haven’t tried selling on their marketplace.

Morning all. Another great week on ebay, and I am finally back to sourcing which feels good.

Sales c/w shipping: CAD$4604, 14 sales, COGS: $181, Fees: ~$618, Postage: $504 –> Gross profit: $3301
Expenditures: $611 –> Cashflow: $3482
Sold some security cameras and shipped to Poland. Kind of surprised by this sale given the weight of these things, buyer paid $350 for shipping.

Ryanne, totally on board with you about the bux in parting out stuff. I’ve made lots off buying old Dyson vacuums and selling the parts. Some of the old models have dozens of parts. Same for beat up Herman Miller Aeron chairs. You can make hundreds off a chair that has its mesh seat/back ripped up. Thanks for another great podcast. Psyching myself up for signing up for Managed Payments.

Total Items in Store: 591
Items Sold: 25
Gross Sales includes s/h: $2,577 (eBay – $747, FB Marketplace – $1,830)
Highest Price: $1,500 – Lot of 3 Herman Miller Aeron chairs
Lowest Price: $9.95 TV Remote Control
Average Price: $37 eBay; $460 FBM
Cost of Goods Sold: $60 eBay; $1,074 FBM
Returns: 1 (TV remote)
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $45
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 10

Gut reaction to the week: Nice bounce-back week on eBay after a downer week. Definitely above my historical average. This past week I started helping a friend sell his office furniture (shutting down his company’s office to go virtual). Listed on FB and Craigslist. I get 40% of whatever sells. Started the week off strong by selling 3 Herman Miller Aeron chairs in excellent condition for $500 each. Selling on FB makes me appreciate eBay. LOts of time wasted answering questions, arranging pick-ups where you’re ghosted, haggling, etc. Also a headache when you put a lot of things on FB at the same time; you get a flood of Messenger texts and it’s easy to confused about who’s interested in which item. Also made the mistake of cross-posting on Craigslist. Not much comes through CL but again, it’s the confusion of coordinating queries. Hard to explain, but suffice to say I will stick to one platform (likely FB) if I do this again.

Total Items in Store: 334
Items Sold: 8 Ebay, 0 Mercari
Gross Sales: $348
Cost of Items Sold: $130
Highest Price Sold: $89 new tiki mug (7 day auction, paid $45)
Average Price Sold: $44
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $250 (new RA)
Number of items listed this week: 33

Pretty good week still but had a few quiet days in a row. I remember that people can become focused on regular retail sales during holiday weekends. I finally got an offer on my small midcentury fine art painting and I’ve countered. In different times I might try selling on Chairish with higher end items like that painting. I follow this local store on insta. It’s amazing the prices they are able to get for vintage items and decor. I shutter to think these are the folks I need to compete with when I start letting myself go to estate sales. They are talented at making vignettes and I imagine that they sell similar items that go to interior designers on Chairish. Any trash elves with experience selling to Chairish?

Mostly new items I’ve already shown in my sold videos are selling so I will wait until I have some more vintage variety to show to finish the next one. Editing on the ipad is much easier than using my phone. I started out 4 years ago with a mix of RA and vintage and had no plans to return to RA but if the deals are available, I’m taking the opportunity and using my Ebay profits to ramp up my new inventory. I’m psyched to list some vintage this morning.

I’m curious about the Facebook store idea. Privacy is a concern but I’m game to try it later if it doesn’t take too much time. I’ll go into one of my FB groups and ask about it. Buyers might be a bit more reluctant to flake or cause issues if they are using their personal account to buy and make offers. Usually selling locally on FB, they at least tell you if they lose interest vs. standard craigslist flakiness.

Have a great week. Hope people stay safe and keep shopping online.

When I was at eBay UpFront in November, a rep said that they were looking into ways to handle items like coins, adult material, gun related, and other categories that Ayden wouldn’t touch. I heard the issue was Ayden, not Apple Pay, but either way, I think that they will come up with a solution. eBay should be more “up front” with sellers if they see a way through so that people won’t just pull that stuff.

I had another good week on eBay. I had thought those days were over, but no! I did have a pretty expensive return request. They haven’t sent it yet, but I’m sure that they will.

Week of May 17-23
* Total Items in Store: 1337 eBay, 32 Etsy
* Items Sold: 28 eBay, 1 Etsy
* Cost of Items Sold: $21.65 + $79 Commission
* Total Sales: $638.05 eBay, $18 Etsy
* Highest Price Sold: $55 Fenton pitcher (on commission), $51 for 3 Raytheon vacuum tubes
* Average price: $22.62
* Returns: 1 ($150 ouch)
* Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
* Number of items listed this week: 3

May 17 – 23
Total Items in Store: 3,977
Items Sold: 49
Total Sales : $1,464
* Above yearly average of $946
Highest Price: $120 (Handcrafted Irish Blackthorn Walking Stick)
Average Price: $30
Returns: 0
Cost of Goods Sold: $130
Costs of Goods Purchased this Week: $0
Number of New Items Listed this Week: 53

Another really good week for me! And not bad of a time listing new inventory either. I have a personal goal of at least 50 new items listed each week. Lately these past weeks I haven’t been able to meet that goal because of work that needed to be done around the house. And this upcoming week will be no exception. I’ve got a lot of plans on little projects that I want to complete while the weather is nice. I just got done building my raised garden. After I get it finalized, I’m taking out an old brick sidewalk that has become a hindrance. All these things would have taken a month or more to get finished, but now that I work for myself I can do as I please. It’s so liberating!

Regarding Facebook marketplace, I’m with a lot of people in saying that I do not like that site. I joined Facebook when it was only open to college students but decided to quit right around the 2016 elections for a lot of reasons. But I would be willing to look into it again as long as it lets me only have a store or whatever and doesn’t try to force me back into the personal stuff.

5/16/20-5/22/20
Total Items In Store: 1971
Items Sold: 42
Gross Sales: $967
Highest Price Sold: $100 (Bottle of Forever Krystle Perfume)
Average Price Sold: $23.03
Returns: 0 $0
Money Spent on New Inventory: $0
Number of items listed: 10

• Sales are right around average and I am back to listing with the inventory I picked up last week.
• After hearing the managed payments discussion from the podcast a few weeks back, I broke down and signed up for it this week. I added a new checking account to my accounts so I can keep it separate and transfer money to my personal accounts when I want, similar to the way I used PayPal.
• On a side note, I highly recommend using Charles Schwab online checking account for banking for anyone that doesn’t need a brick and mortar bank for their checking. Everything is free. You can order checks for free and they pay you interest on your checking balance. The best thing though…they reimburse you every month for any ATM fees you were charged if you withdraw cash from anywhere. This will be one nice thing about changing from PayPal to a normal checking for my deposited Ebay funds.

Just finished listening to the latest podcast and had to smile at the parting things out portion. This is how I’ve made my living on eBay for years now. Its hard to beat a $200 car with a blown engine that you can turn into 2 or 3 grand. I’ve got a dozen cars waiting to be parted out but looks like I will be heading out of that line for at least the next “rest of my life” years (I hope). Came into a cache of transistor car radios & related parts (3000+ radios and all the parts/books/tools to start a restoration service) a few months ago. And just inherited enough vintage car parts that I will never get through it all (literally spent last 10 days doing nothing but moving parts, hundreds and hundreds of boxes of Studebaker parts).

I would absolutely recommend that anyone with a mechanical slant that wants to start an eBay business that they look into parting out cars. Best thing to do is pick a weird niche of vintage cars and seek out those cars and parts. like British Leyland (MG, Triumph, Jaguar, etc), which has been very kind to me in the past.

Ya’ll stay safe,
John

May 17-23, 2020
Total Items In Store: 149
Items Sold: 3
Gross Sales (including shipping): $71.39
Cost of Items Sold: est @ $2.00
Highest Price Sold: $18.00 Red/White/Blue Cole Haan Deck Shoes with blemish.
Average Price Sold: $23.79
Returns: 0
Sourcing Cost: $20.00

Working 2 full time jobs and trying to do an Ebay store is hard work, but it’s fun. What’s nice is when I’m delivering newspapers, I can usually get a jump on the free piles and have grabbed a few garbage bags of clothes, it’s finding time to process them. Most recently I’ve been listing match book covers, about 100 or so. I set up a template and just take the pics during a 5-10 min break, load up about 25 or so drafts and then when work is done and I’m cooking supper, just load pics up and list. Works pretty slick and have sold 4 already.
I should have taken a picture of it this AM, but I drive by a Goodwill on my route and no kidding, there was a pile of garbage bags maybe 4 ft high, 20 feet long and 3-4 feet deep up against the wall. It was soooo tempting to swing in and pack the trunk full of bags, but it’s not right. Same thing with these big green boxes in town. Bags just sitting in front of them in the rain. I could seriously have 20 bags of clothes every weekend for free. My Irish and Catholic conscience got the best of me. Same when I see a pile of bags on a driveway only to see them labelled for the Vets or Epilepsy Foundation. Must just be Picker’s Pride.
Anyway, hope everyone is doing well and I’m hoping to get the store up to 200 by June 1st. Initial goal was end of June… Take Care. Jim.

Thanks for the podcast Ryanne and Jay!

Here are my numbers for this week:
Total Items in Store: 3897
Items Sold: 50
Total Sales: $1251.06
Cost of Items Sold: $234
Average Price Sold: $25.02
Average Cost of Item: $4.7
Highest Price Item Sold: $249 Technics SL-1350 Direct-Drive Turntable
Number of items listed this week: 95 worth approx. $1834
YTD Sales: $23111
YTD sales compared to this time last year: +17%
Average age of items in store (in days since listing): 445
Average number of days between listing and selling this week: 390
Median age of sales (in days, between listing and selling): 200
Sell-through rate (for the week): 1.28%

Another solid week for me. Pretty much the same as the previous week. I barely have anything except hats to list (as that’s all I’m able to source) so I’m happy that sales have stayed at the current level.

Jay asked for a source for the information about ebay not being able to support coins, bullion etc under managed payments. That topic is addressed at the 41:15 mark of a recent eBay For business podcast. People currently selling those items wont be forced into Managed Payments yet and they are still working on a way to support those items. This podcast episode is actually worth listening all the way through. They address shipping delays, other info about managed payments and talk about what’s going on with ebay customer support.

May 17 – May 23, 2020
Total Items For Sale: 850
Items Sold: 5
Gross Sales: $123.45
Cost of Items Sold: $30
Highest Price Sold: $40 (Japanese MCI MCM Ikebana Vase)
Average Price Sold: $24.69
Returns: 1 (shoes didn’t fit and I’ve already sold them again!)
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $0
Number Of Items Listed This Week: 14

SLOW week. And of course like a dummy I deferred my eBay store fees so I’m suffering this month. But I haven’t been listing much lately so now I’m motivated.

I did pick up some items I won in a local Facebook live auction so I’m having fun going through all of that. Tons of old buttons and vintage greeting cards which I have never really delved into. I listed the vase I bought for $20 and it sold for $40 overnight. Not the best profit margin with fees, but still I love a quick sale.

I may have a new listing method. I usually list just from my phone but when I had a ton of Hawaiian shirts to list a couple weeks ago, I got into a rhythm of starting drafts on the computer so I could type out all the measurements (copy/paste a template first). I have a measuring tape taped to my desk so I would measure right as I was listing. Then I’d finish the listings on my phone with the photos. It went so much faster. I listed 50 shirts in one sitting! At least for items that require a longer description or copy/paste, this may be how I list now.

Always nice to hear a regular weekly podcast, you guys did really well this week!
I have sold a few things on facebook marketplace and a few other small selling groups, but it seems really strict and limiting as far as what I could sell. Posted a paintball gun and the reactions of “Oh my god, that’s a gun!” started almost immediately and it was taken down, no matter how any times I tried explaining what it was…
Sales here on mercadolibre are supporting our food habit. Sold another lot of cigarette cases with gas lighters for $125, $50 worth of random toys, another rifle scope (wish I always had those to sell) for $75, 2 womens reebok sports bras for $35, and another little disney toy for $25. Not a bad week actually.
Some more stores are slowly opening here, but all beaches still closed and dry law is set to end on June 1st, but by delivery only, no alcohol sales in store to avoid massive lines. Strange way to do it but I guess it makes sense…

May 17 – May 23, 2020
Total Items For Sale: 264
Items Sold: 49 (16% Sell Through Rate for Week)
Gross Sales: $1342 (Includes Shipping)
Cost of Items Sold: $306
Highest Price Sold: $150 (LOL Surprise Doll House, Porch Pickup)
Average Price Sold: $27.38
Returns: I need to track when I get a return, I only track what item was returned and how much was refunded.
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $260
Number Of Items Listed This Week: 47 ($957)

I know this is really late from this week’s podcast, but I just joined and want to get my sales on the books :P.

Love the podcast!

Items in Store 1525
Items Sold 48
Total Sales $1,832.00
COGS $203.00
Total Profit $1,629.00
Average profit $33.94
Average sales price $38.17
New Listings 59

I was out of town so getting caught up. I set my handling time to 10 days starting Thursday and still had decent sales throughout the weekend. Ebay has been doing good fixing things lately, so hopefully the handling time thing will get fixed at some point this year.

I did do well selling on facebook yardsale this week. Last weekend I picked up two power wheels kids toys at a yard sale in my neighborhood for $5 each. I replaced the batteries with decent ones I had on the shelf already (I have ALOT of kids). Then flipped them quickly on FB for $75 each. I also sold off many of my extra mannequins.